We found a property

Last week Annie and I found a property that we liked a lot. I tried calling several times, but wasn't able to get a hold of the owner until yesterday. He wasn't around, but his handy-man was so he showed me around inside of the building. I liked it and so I made an appointment to go back with Annie and Eduardo. We saw it last night at 8:30, and after some negotiations we came to a fair price.

It is 86 square meters which comes out to about 925 square feet. They say that 1 square meter is about enough space for one person to be comfortable at a church (and that leaves space for aisles, pulpit, etc). They say that if you need to squeeze a bit then you can take that number down to 3/4 of a square meter. This means that the building could comfortably fit 85, and we could squeeze in about 115. I believe it will be a wonderful place for us to start. It is on a very busy street where all of the colectivos (a colectivo is like a taxi that runs a route) drive through. In the area of town that we will be in, this is the busiest street, and it is at a pretty important intersection. This building used to be an internet cafe that was in business for about 4 years, but had to close two months ago. It is almost double the size of the other property we were looking at and it is a much better location for only about $100 more a month. My wife thinks I am funny, but here is a "to scale" model of the building that I made this morning on paint. It can give you an idea of the layout (the numbers you see are centimeters).

We are supposed to write up the contract this week. The building is undergoing some remodeling and won't be available until January, which is perfect because we don't "need" it until February. This will give us a month to get things set up for our inauguration. I am also very please that he will be allowing us to put our sign up in the meantime while we do promotion for the first service. This will give us great visibility for the next few months as we leave an invitation, gospel tract, and CD with Bible stories on every door! Real pictures to come as things start to happen at the property. The momentum is exhilarating. I have to remind myself that you can't function on adrenaline though, and the business can make it easy to forget your personal walk with the Lord. There is the old saying, "If the devil can't make you bad, he makes you busy." So daily I am focusing on abiding in Christ.